EXCLUSIVE: Gender critical campaigners have won a major victory and forced NHS trusts to stop the heel-dragging over biological sex wards and toilets.
Nurse Bethany Hutchison won a landmark legal victory against County Durham & Darlington NHS Trust (Image: Craig Connor/ChronicleLive)
NHS bosses were told “biological sex is not an optional belief” after new guidance banned trans women from female hospital wards.
New guidance – which applies to patients and staff – has been published 18 months after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled sex must be grounded in biology and not self-identification under the Equality Act.
Hospitals have now been made clear that wards, lavatories and changing rooms should be segregated by biological sex, not gender identity.
It represents a major victory for gender-critical campaigners and means trusts must stop the heel-dragging that has seen some continue to flout the ruling.
Nurse Bethany Hutchison, one of seven nurses who won a legal fight against County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, which allowed a biological male identifying as a woman to use female-only staff changing rooms, said: “Biological sex is not an optional belief. It is a material reality and, following the Supreme Court’s judgment, it is the basis upon which sex must be understood in equality law. We therefore welcome this clear and necessary guidance from NHS England.
“The test now is whether NHS trusts will actually follow it. Too many NHS institutions have been ideologically captured on these issues, leaving frontline women to defend rights and protections that their employers should have upheld from the outset.”
(L-R) NHS nurses and campaigners Lucy Lockley, Bethany Hutchison, Sandie Peggie & Jennifer Melle (Image: PA Wire)
NHS England – which is being abolished and absorbed into the Department of Health and Social Care – has told hospitals and GP surgeries they must comply with a judgement made in the For Women Scotland v Scottish Ministers case in April last year that stated the words “sex”, “woman” and “man” in the Equality Act 2010 refer to biological sex.
From now on NHS trusts must ensure single-sex spaces are not used by those of the opposite biological sex, even if they identify as a different gender.
However, NHS England has yet to clarify how rules that are based on biological sex will be implemented and monitored to ensure compliance.
Mrs Hutchison, whose fight and victory at an employment tribunal sparked a nationwide movement, added: “The Darlington nurses should never have had to take their own employer to court to secure privacy, dignity and lawful single-sex facilities. Enforcement cannot continue to depend on the courage and personal sacrifice of individual nurses.
“NHS England, regulators and trust leaders must now ensure that every NHS policy is brought swiftly and lawfully into line with this guidance, the EHRC Code and the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“There must be clear oversight, meaningful accountability and consequences for trusts that refuse to comply.”
Maya Forstater, Chief Executive of sex-based rights charity Sex Matters, said: “A year-and-a-half ago, the Government said NHS England’s new policy would be out within ‘weeks’. In that time, female NHS employees have had to fight court battles to keep men out of their changing rooms, while female patients on single-sex wards have suffered the indignity and safety risk of having trans-identifying men accommodated with them.
“New guidelines for staff facilities and patient accommodation on the basis of biological sex are therefore very welcome, as is the news NHS England is requiring all trusts to undertake an audit of their facilities and bring them into line with the law.
“While the policies themselves represent a momentous shift back to reality, we are concerned that NHS England has not said how rules based on biological sex will be implemented.
“NHS patient data is a mess, with potentially thousands of trans-identifying people recorded as the opposite sex. For years, staff have been fearful of getting into trouble for ‘misgendering’ a trans-identifying person. NHS England leaders need to make clear that there will be no more nurses disciplined for calling a man ‘he’, as Jennifer Melle was.
“After a decade of policies based on self-ID and the influence of transactivist campaigners, many NHS trusts have embedded a culture of gender ideology that has pushed staff to treat a claimed transgender identity as if it is a person’s sex. NHS England must now follow up with a clear directive to reverse trans ideology within trusts and consider the publication of scenarios or case studies that will empower all staff to speak honestly, and enable regional leadership to stand up to transactivist bullies.”
The diktat replaces long-standing NHS guidance that states trans people should be able to use whichever facilities they prefer, saying: “Single-sex services, such as hospital accommodation, should be provided on the basis of biological sex.”
Andrea Williams, Chief Executive of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, said: “This is welcome and long-overdue guidance. It has taken a long-fought battle, led by courageous women such as the Darlington nurses, to put biological reality back at the heart of NHS policy.
“But an important gap remains. The guidance does not give NHS staff the clarity and protection they need over pronoun use. Jennifer Melle was investigated, disciplined and referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council after declining to use female pronouns for a biologically male patient. She was eventually cleared, but no nurse should have to endure that ordeal for using biologically accurate language.
“NHS England must now make clear that healthcare professionals cannot be compelled to use preferred pronouns or penalised for declining to express beliefs about gender identity that they do not hold.”
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This is a victory for common sense – but the NHS has to finish the job
NHS England has finally published guidance which says that single-sex wards, and single-sex facilities like toilets and changing rooms, must be organised by biological sex. A man can claim to be a woman but it will no longer get him into the women’s ward, toilets or changing rooms.
The policy change is vindication for the NHS staff who refused to pretend, in the face of huge pressure to go along with it, that claimed identity had to be respected above biological reality. Women like the Darlington nurses, who were harassed and indirectly discriminated against by their employer, an NHS Trust, which made them share a changing room with a male colleague who identified as a woman. And the nurse at St Helier Hospital, Jennifer Melle, who was given a written warning and reported to her regulator after referring to a trans-identifying male patient as “he”.
Her claim against her trust was settled, and the Nursing and Midwifery Council dropped its case. Yet even now, four of the Darlington nurses are still waiting to hear whether the Nursing and Midwifery Council will take further action against them for speaking out. Nurse Sandie Peggie in Scotland suffered harassment when her employer made her share with a trans-identifying male doctor. NHS Scotland is not covered by today’s announcement.
This guidance is a common-sense policy. NHS leaders now need to finish the job. They must make clear to staff that recognising that a male patient is a man is not a disciplinary matter, even if that man wishes to be a woman. Patient records are also unreliable, with potentially thousands of trans-identifying people recorded as the opposite sex. That must be fixed. Honesty about someone’s sex is in the best interests of the patient, as well as others around them, in order to keep people safe when they are receiving medical care. The NHS needs to stop pretending otherwise. There should be no more cases like those of the Darlington nurses, Sandie Peggie or Jennifer Melle.
Andy Burnham faces Labour revolt over huge blunder: ‘They will lose seats!’
Labour MPs are terrified about a “Burnham Brexit backlash” from voters.
Prime Minister Labour Burnham faces an election nightmare (Image: PA)
Andy Burnham could face a revolt from his own MPs “nervous” about losing their seats if the Prime Minister decides to call a rumoured snap election.
Conservative MP Esther McVey told Daily Express Deputy Political Editor Steph Spyro that there was a “jittery agitation” and a “nervousness” in Westminster amongst Labour MPs worried about whispers Mr Burnham might call an election in a bid to sure-up his authority to lead the country.
Speaking on the Daily Expressso podcast Ms McVey, the MP for Tatton, said: “There’s been rumours there could be a snap election, they (Labour MPs) don’t want that, many will lose their seats.
“And also many of the Labour MPs, which are Brexit-voting seats, they just don’t understand why Andy Burnham has brought the Brexit debate back onto the table. They thought when they were getting this new Prime Minister they were going to have ‘ideas Andy’ and lots of energy.
“And what they’ve ended up with is confusion and indecision.”
Ms McVey added that some senior Labour MPs had told her this week that “they feel like they are just treading water” and it’s not even worth coming to the Commons because it’s a “zombie Parliament”.
Another said, Ms McVey claimed, that they “don’t want Brexit brought up” and that by the Prime Minister putting it on the agenda again he was “picking at a scab”.
She added the unnamed Labour MP told her “it is a mistake, there will be a Burnham Brexit backlash”. She claimed one MP talking about his seat said that Burnham’s stance on Brexit was “bringing Reform back to life”.
Esther McVey (right) didn’t hold back talking to Express deputy political editor, Steph Spyro (Image: Daily Express)
Andy Burnham has been accused of “unpicking” the original Brexit deal after he announced a key UK-EU summit next month will be used to push for new trade deals with the bloc. The summit will take place in Brussels on November 20, where the two sides will seek to sign a new food and drink agreement, a youth mobility scheme and a pact on emissions trading.
On Monday, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch accused the Prime Minister of revealing his hand before the negotiations begin.
She told the Commons: “What has the Prime Minister chosen to focus on today? Brexit. Here he is unpicking the deal this country signed with the EU a decade after the referendum.
“He is not going to get a better deal. The EU are tough negotiators, and it’s not just that the EU are tough negotiators, he has already revealed his entire negotiating hand.
“He has just blurted out everything he wants in this statement and I will tell him now, as a former trade secretary, this is not how you conduct negotiations.”